Keep in mind that while I do own the Basement Collection, I have not gotten to chapter two in Time Fcuk, so everything I think has been based off of the original Time Fcuk. I'm writing this before I play chapter two because there's an overwhelmingly good chance Edmund already knew that his own games were very similar before chapter 2 was added and may have built on his original idea in Time Fcuk even more. In comparing it to the Binding of Isaac, I will also only be comparing it up to the twelfth ending. This is because Edmund has already stated that ending twelve was the original and true ending of the game. I do have a theory on the thirteenth ending added in Wrath of the Lamb, but I'm not particularly fond of it, and I will not be going into it because of the reasons stated above. This is going to be a bit hard to explain, since I'm trying to take my thoughts about something sort of complicated and put them down into words for the first time, so if you get confused, I apologize.

For anyone to understand anything about how I got to what I think, you're going to need to know some of what I think about both the ending to Isaac (ending twelve), and the good ending to Time Fcuk. So I'll start with the easy one; the Binding of Isaac. I'm just going to skip over to ending eleven and twelve since those are the ones that pertain the closest to Time Fcuk. I'm not saying that some of the other endings aren't significant, but again, these two are the most important when comparing it to Time Fcuk. I will also talk about some of Edmunds life experiences and touch a little bit on Aether, which also has relevance in the Binding of Isaac.

In the intro to the Binding of Isaac, Isaac is shown drawing pictures and playing with his toys while his mom watches Christian broadcasts on TV. One day Isaacs mother hears a voice from God, telling her that Isaac has been corrupted by sin. She takes away his toys and drawings, and sends him up to his room. This is the first part I want to analyze, because it's extremely important to everything after this pertaining to the Binding of Isaac.

For any of you that have played Aether, the story was very obvious even if given enough thought. A boy who has problems at home or school uses his imagination to escape into a world made all in his own mind. The monster that the boy rides on in Aether is symbolic of his imagination, and the aliens on the other planets are symbolic of his problems. When you finally complete all of the planets and try to go back to earth, the earth breaks when you touch it because it becomes so small, and the boy is lost in space forever. This is symbolic of the boy not being able to interact with anyone in the real world anymore because he hadn't grown past the point where he was isolated, so he had no idea how to talk to people or feel the same things as people or act normally. A similar situation occurs in the Binding of Isaac.

Isaac becomes isolated and starts to live in his own fantasy world. His mother starts to worry about him and tries to change his behavior so he doesn't destroy himself by becoming lost in his world. She takes away what she thinks are the problems; his toys and his drawings. Edmund drew a lot as a child, and his drawings weren't always pleasant. He has also said multiple times that Aether was strongly based on his childhood, and watching Indie Game the Movie, or at least clips from it, it was apparent that Edmund went through the same thing that the boy in Aether did (symbolically of course). The idea of drawing to escape the problems of the world is a theme that Edmund definitely incorporated into the Binding of Isaac that was based off a real life personal experience, that's why the taking away Isaac's drawings jumped out as a hint to that, and why I think that is the case.

As a young child, Isaac is extremely receptive to any information he comes into contact with, so naturally, hearing Christian broadcasts on tv, he brings the biblical ideas and stories into his own imagination and his own world. Isaac believed that his mother was taking away all of his things because God had told her too; or at least that's what he believed in his own mind. Instead of letting his mother try to help him, he flung himself even further into his imagination, creating the basement.

So we've already established that Isaac is living in his own imaginary world, this becomes even clearer in endings eleven and twelve. In ending eleven, Isaac opens the chest, and he cycles through Cain, Maggy, Judas, Eve, a devil, and finally back to himself. This is Isaac realizing that he is living in his own imaginary world. Instead of coming out of it, he thinks this is better than having to deal with his mom, and he gets into the chest, locking himself in his world.

In ending twelve, we see Isaac looking at a book and standing in front of a mirror. I'm pretty sure this is the book that Isaac has been drawing in. When he is reading the book, he is shocked at what he is seeing/reading in it. All of his drawings showing himself killing mom, showing grotesque creatures, drawings showing all the horrible things in the game. He looks into the mirror, and thinks he must be a terrible monster or a demon. He looks over to the chest, and thinks the same.

Well that's my hypothesis on the Binding of Isaac. Now to relate it to Time Fcuk. Again, I have not played chapter two of Time Fcuk, I formulated this hypothesis before the Basement Collection was even out. The good ending to Time Fcuk is the ending that most pertains to the Binding of Isaac, so that is what I'm going to cover.

In the good ending of Time Fcuk, you push yourself into the box where you first started, the little ending cutscene plays, and it's apparent that you just screwed yourself over and went in a complete circle. After that, the text tells of a little kid who has a box and a marker and draws inside of it. When his mom turns on the light and the kid sees the inside of the box, he describes "bodies of [his] future selves covering the walls of the box... Each one wandering in the darkness in the world [he] had created, the world [he] had made for [himself]." It's very apparent that we're again coming back to the theme of creating your own world, dooming yourself, etc. etc. etc.

Both games use the act of getting into the box/chest to symbolize escapism and isolating oneself, and both the Binding of Isaac and Time Fcuk have to do with living in a fantasy world to escape from real life problems and never being able to grow up and learn from your mistakes. Again, keep in mind I have not played chapter two of Time Fcuk, as my theory was formulated prior to the Basement Collection.

Both games are masterpieces of the art of abstract storytelling, and share many similarities. You don't have to choose to agree with me, but I haven't seen an explanation that makes more sense to me. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please give me some feedback of any questions you had or any theories you had. Thank you.

In ending eleven, Isaac opens the chest, and he cycles through Cain, Maggy, Judas, Eve, a devil, and finally back to himself. This is Isaac realizing that he is living in his own imaginary world. Instead of coming out of it, he thinks this is better than having to deal with his mom, and he gets into the chest, locking himself in his world.